• Client: Ascend, the finance automation platform for insurance retailers, intermediaries and carriers
• Interviewee: Shyam Sivakumar, Head of Data at Ascend
• Industry: Financial Services, Insurance
• Company size: 11-50

TL; DR:

• Improved speed and efficiency vs dbt core™; get your team up and running in 10 minutes, instead of 10 days.
• Bolt is powering business metrics for the whole company with 100% uptime.
• Personalized support and rapid feature development, with a 'first response' time within 5 minutes.
• Less time on admin, more time spent on working on business-critical work streams thanks to DinoAI - the AI co-pilot powered by GPT-4o.

"Paradime has not only simplified our data operations but also improved our capabilities to perform at peak efficiency across departments” - Shyam Sivakumar, Head of Data at Ascend

I. Background

Ascend is a modern, all-in-one finance automation platform, purpose-built for insurance retailers, brokers, MGAs, and carriers.

They make insurance businesses more profitable by increasing revenue and decreasing operational expenses through administrative process automation, financial insights, and treasury management. The team at Ascend works with over 3,000 insurance businesses, from startups to publicly traded companies.

II. Challenges

Shyam and his team were encountering several significant challenges with their previous setup using dbt core™. These issues not only led to data inaccuracies but also slowed down the team's progress:

1. Setup and maintenance: Shyam described the setup and ongoing maintenance of dbt Core™ as unnecessarily complex and cumbersome.
2. Version management: keeping dbt Core™ versions up-to-date across all instances, which also would have caused even more problems when onboarding his whole team, was particularly time-consuming.
3. Infrastructure management: managing the infrastructure for e.g. warehouse permission management and maintaining code repositories, diverted resources from getting actual work done.

These operational inefficiencies drove Shyam to seek a more streamlined and efficient solution, leading to the adoption of Paradime.

III. Solution

The implementation of Paradime was notably seamless. Shyam appreciated the straightforward onboarding process, emphasizing that it accelerated development time compared to their previous setups.

"The time to start developing is much quicker with Paradime, like a direct upgrade from dbt™ core and without the setup hassles"

The smooth transition allowed Ascend's team to spend less time on technical maintenance, and more time on strategic data analysis, enhancing productivity, and streamlining their data operations.

IV. Impact on the business

The transition to Paradime has empowered Ascend to focus more on strategic data analysis rather than operational backend management. The organization has seen a marked improvement in handling data complexities, leading to better decision-making and business agility across the board.

“Bolt is essentially helping us summarize and understand all of the components of our north star metric, MRR, for example. It pretty much impacts every facet of our business - from marketing to sales to product to, well, everything”

The ease of integration and feature-rich environment of Paradime has enabled Shyam and his team to devote more time to forward-looking strategic actions, and less to managing admin and setup constraints.

V. Five benefits with Paradime

1. Speed and Efficiency ⏱️

Paradime has a significantly reduced setup time compared to other tools, enabling Ascend to get up and running with data operations swiftly and accurately.

"The initial setup, including permission management, maintaining code repository, all of that, is much easier than if we would have had to continue to self-manage"

2. Powering the Ascend North Star ⭐

Ascend leverage Bolt to keep their North Star metric, monthly recurring revenue (MRR), up-to-date in real-time - which is central to their overall business success as now everyone in the organization knows what’s driving the business. The automation and accuracy provided by Bolt have streamlined their financial reporting processes too, impacting every part of the business.

3. DinoAI 🦖

Paradime's new features, like the AI-powered co-pilot DinoAI, have become indispensable for Ascend, enhancing productivity with repeating tasks.

"The AI complete for the commit is essentially my most used AI feature. I really love that one, and can’t wait where you’re taking DinoAI next”

4. A focus on strategic goals 🎯

Freed from the intricacies of data tooling and infrastructure management, Ascend can now concentrate on advancing their data roadmap and ensure the success of other teams across the business. For example, Shyam can now lead data quality initiatives, enabling Ascend's Ops team to significantly increase customer impact, aiding in customer acquisition and retention.

5. Customer experience beyond product 🤝

Paradime’s responsive customer support and fast feedback loops have been pivotal for Ascend. Shyam appreciated the personalized customer support and the rapid pace of feature development.

"The feedback loop is pretty amazing. It's as close to a fully personalized customer support experience as you can get"

VI. What’s are they doing next?

For the coming quarters, the Data team at Ascend will be working on enhancing its approach to data management even further, focusing on building a comprehensive data overview for each unit sold.

This initiative is designed to especially support BizOps by providing a clear overview of all activities associated with sales - including money processing, cancellations, and refunds. Currently, these data points exist disparately, which may result in potential errors during different processes such as collection and cancellation.

By consolidating and processing this information using Paradime, the team aims to monitor and optimize the timelines and sequences of these activities, improving efficiency and reducing points of failure throughout a unit’s lifecycle.

This strategic development is crucial for Ascend's operations, especially as they operate in the FinTech sector, where precise, timely data is critical for business survival.

VII. Conclusion

Ascend's partnership with Paradime highlights the substantial benefits of choosing a robust and user-friendly analytics operation system.

Paradime’s comprehensive solution has not only resolved previous challenges but also set Ascend’s data team on a path to be forward-looking, rather than fire-fighting - proving that the right tools can significantly enhance business operations and outcomes across all departments.

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